Hogan: Hilltop Park was home to great pitching feats
From SABR member Lawrence Hogan at The National Pastime Museum on November 18, 2013:
If remembered for anything today, the Highlanders of New York are recollected as predecessors to the Yankees. Occupying by modern standards a bandbox of a ball park in the highest part of Manhattan, the team’s name reflected its location.
If one were able to ask clubhouse manager Fred Logan what was most memorable about the Highlanders, he might well have said Jack Chesbro and Walter Johnson. In any ranking of the all-time greatest pitching feats, it would be hard to disagree with what Logan witnessed on the pitcher’s mound at Hilltop Park in 1904 and 1908.
Logan tended in 1904 to the needs of strong right-hander “Smiling” Jack Chesbro, who would compile one of the most astounding seasons in the history of the game with 51 starts, 48 complete games, a 41-12 record and a 1.82 ERA built around 239 strikeouts in 454 innings.
The Highlanders ace’s record for games won in baseball’s post-1900 era has stood for over a century, one of the oldest major individual marks in any sport. What is usually forgotten, or simply not mentioned, is that for all of Jack’s winning, his season would be best/worst? defined by the last of his dozen losses.
Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/hilltop-park-was-home-great-pitching-feats
Originally published: November 18, 2013. Last Updated: November 18, 2013.